Month: October 2016

Fitness Journal: Saturday evening run

I ended up hanging out and getting dinner with friends, so I didn’t run on Friday, but got it in today instead! This was my first day of Week 3 of the C25k, and I was pretty nervous about the whole ‘run for 3 entire minutes no breaks’ bit. As it turns out, I’m slow af but once I get in that groove, I don’t really want to die toward the end of those three minutes! This is pretty great since it is a really tangible and visible improvement since I started running regularly.

Stats:
Distance: 2.29 mi
Speed: 15:22 min/mi
Cats: 1, hanging out in the shadows in the middle of the road

skin care and exercise: fall edition

One issue brought up by exercising more AND getting obsessed with skin care AND using ingredients that increase sun sensitivity is that I have to think a bit more about how I’m going to coordinate my exercise with my skin care routine.

For me, the easiest so far has been to exercise after work. At this point, the sun is setting (or already set if I’m getting started late), so there is minimal sun exposure, and I still have the remnants of my daily sunscreen on. By the time I’m done, the sun is basically set (if I didn’t start in the dark!), so it doesn’t matter if I’ve sweated off the remainder of my sunscreen and I can just do my usual wash routine in the shower and then go right into my nightly product(s). If it were any earlier in the evening and/or if the sun was more up, it would probably make sense to reapply the sunscreen before going running. And since it isn’t UNGODLY HOT anymore, I’m not sweating as badly either.

When it was hotter, I was liberally applying my go-to US sunscreen: Coppertone for Kids/Babies Tear Free. It’s hella water/sweat proof, and if some days I double-cleansed twice a day, so be it.

Fitness Journal: Monday evening run

I left work a bit early, because bleh, and was almost all set to get out and run when my Mom called. It was good, because we needed to catch up on a whole bunch of things, but I definitely started running after dark. My new route actually works out ok in the dark. Its better lit and/or I was just less worried about turning my ankle.

Stats:
Distance: 2.24 mi
Speed: 14:47 min/mi
Animals: none, just smelled the aftermath of a few. :(

Fitness Journal: Friday run

I accidentally went much farther than I was ‘supposed’ to. In week 1 of the C25K program that I’m doing, there are 8 intervals + warmup/cooldown, but in week 2, there are only 6 intervals, so I ran the first few mins of my cooldown. It worked out though. Since I thought I had more intervals to go, I was taking a longer route, so I still got plenty of cooldown time.

I also realized that (horror!) I might have to start doing my runs in the morning instead of the evening. It is getting darker earlier, and I don’t like doing the trails in the dark because the ground is a bit uneven and I’m paranoid about my ankles. And after the end of daylight savings, it’s going to be Really Dark. Maybe I can sub some running with biking to work.

Todays stats:
Distance: 2.52 mi
Speed: 14:52 min/mi
Animals: a million dogs being walked

Fitness Journal: Monday and Wednesday runs

I’m up to Week 1 Day 3 of C25k! Congrats to me! Tonight’s run went really well. There were times on Monday when I wanted to die, but that was really absent today. As a tradeoff, Monday’s run was great in the ankle department, while I was getting some twinges today. So it goes.

Monday’s stats:
Distance: 2.14 mi
Speed: 16:06 min/mi

Wednesday’s stats:
Distance: 1.99 mi
Speed: 15:45 min/mi
Animals: One orange kitty-kit, hanging out protecting their front yard

I’m not really sure why the distance was that much shorter today than it usually is. Maybe my cooldown was shorter.

Fitness Journal: Thursday evening run

I’m back at Day 1 Week 1 of C25k. The weather has gotten much nicer, so running outside seems like a thing a sensible person could do again. Of course, I had decided very firmly to run this evening, and just as I’m setting out, it starts to rain. Entirely un-predicted, of course. My time to distance ratio is a bit wonky today because of that. I was definitely hanging out under a tree for a few minutes deciding if I needed to go back for a plastic bag for my phone. Of course, once I’d gone back for the baggie, the rain had mostly passed. It was for the best though, since there were little spits of rain off and on throughout my run.

One thing I noticed is that I definitely need to step it up in the PT department for my wonky ankle. The muscles on that side were complaining much more than the other side.

Stats:
Distance: 2.13 mi
Speed: 17:46 min/mi
Cats: 1, sprinting across the road during my cool down